William B. Parsons

Office: 219 Humanities Building
Phone: 713-348-2712
Email: pars@rice.edu

Associate Professor

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1993.


Areas of Teaching

Comparative Mysticism, Psychology of Religion, Social Scientific Interpretations of Religion, Religion and Culture, Religion and Gender


Selected Publications

Books
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling: Revisioning the Psychoanalytic Theory of Mysticism. (Oxford)

Edited Books

Parsons, William B. and Jonte-Pace, Diane. Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (Routledge)

Parsons, William B., Jonte-Pace, Diane, and Susan E. Henking, Mourning Religion (University of Virginia)

Parsons, William B. and Kaplan, Gregory, Disciplining Freud on Religion (Rowman-Littlefield)

Forthcoming Works

Parsons, William B. Freud and Augustine at Ostia: Psychoanalysis, The Confessions, and the Culture of Modern Spirituality

Parsons, William B. Teaching Mysticism

Selected Articles

"Psychologia Perennis and the Academic Study of Mysticism" in Mourning Religion (University of Virginia)

"Mourning and Method in Psychoanalytic Studies of Indian Religion" in Mourning Religion (University of Virginia)

"Psychoanalysis and Mysticism: The Case of St. Augustine" in Mysticism: a Variety of Psychological Perspectives ed. Jacob Belzen and A. Geels (Rodopi)

"Let Him Rejoice in the Roseate Light! Teaching Psychoanalysis and Mysticism" in Teaching Freud ed. D. Jonte-Pace (Oxford)

"Themes and Debates in the Psychology-Comparativist Dialogue" in Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (Routledge)

"Mapping Religion and Psychological Studies" in Religion and Psychology: Mapping the Terrain (Routledge)

"Psychosocial Perspectives on the Millennium" in Religious Studies Review

"Psychoanalysis and Mysticism: The Case of Ramakrishna" in Religious Studies Review

 "Psychoanalysis Meets Buddhism: The  Development of a Dialogue" in J. Belzen, ed., Changing the Scientific Study of Religion: Beyond Freud?